This invention relates to a network scanner system and an original reading method.
Connected to a network and equipped with an automatic document feeder, a conventional network scanner scans and inputs an original document consisting of a plurality of pages as follows. That is, (1) all the pages of the document are set on a single scanner, and are scanned and input. (2) Alternatively, when a plurality of scanners are used, the respective pages of the document are divisionally scanned and input by the individual scanners, and the input image data are re-edited using a personal computer or the like, so that the read images are properly arranged in the page order.
However, in the above-mentioned prior art, for example, when a document consisting of a plurality of pages is input using a single scanner, since other scanners are not used, it is inefficient in terms of efficient use of time and hardware resources.
Furthermore, when using a single scanner, since a possible number of pages of the document to be set at a time in an automatic document feeder is limited, if a large number of pages of the document has to be input, a user must repeat the same input procedure many times. Thus is time-consuming.
On the other hand, when a document is divisionally scanned and input using a plurality of scanners, the user must re-edit the divisionally input document data after scanning, and time-consuming, troublesome works remain.